Pop Culture- The Ever Expanding MCU

     If you are a comic book fan like myself you have likely delved into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) at some point over the last 13+ years. It's hard to imagine anyone that hasn't heard of this absolutely massive web of interconnecting stories. It's probably fair to make the assumption that most people have seen something relating to the MCU in passing since Marvel and now Disney have been marketing these films nonstop since 2008 with the release of Iron Man (a classic). They have steadily used various films and even some TV shows to build an entire cinematic realm hence the name Marvel Cinematic Universe. We've been exposed to all sorts of characters over the years from Captain America to teases of lesser known characters like Adam Warlock. One of the main issues with getting some real fan favorites like Spider-Man roped into the films has been rights. Back in the early days of superhero film making Marvel struggled a bit financially which let to certain characters rights being sold to production companies like New Line Cinema (Blade), 20th Century Fox (X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc.) and Sony (Spider-Man, Venom, Silver Sable, etc.), Universal (Hulk). Here is a brief history on the rights sales if you care to dig deeper. 

    Above is a sort of compilation of many of the movie posters to create a "Where's Waldo" level photo of most of the important MCU Characters. Looper was kind enough to create a relatively succinct video explaining the MCU timeline up to last year which might be helpful for those who are a bit rusty on their movie knowledge. Marvel gave heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Ant Man, Doctor Strange, and others entire films for their true introductions into the MCU. That's how we ended up with the Avengers variant everyone is familiar with from the films. Marvel really started to expand when they began sharing rights. This first started with characters like Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver in Age Ultron, their backstory was tweaked a bit and 20th Century Fox let them use the characters (not for free of course). We see a similar deal later with the introduction of the alien race called Skrulls in Captain Marvel. They also rented out Spider-Man from Sony which caused a lot of rumors to fly about if he would eventually be removed from the MCU again or not prompting a "bring him home" movement. As of now Disney has bought both Marvel and Fox so Sony is the last man standing as far as retaining major marvel character rights while not being under Disney's all encompassing blanket of ownership.

    

 We also saw a similar deal with characters for Netflix series. The Defenders each had their own shows with multiple seasons and were part of the crossover season of the same name. This is my time to say that if you haven't watched Daredevil or Punisher, do yourself a favor and check them out. These adaptations brought a more gritty realistic take on these characters which fit pretty well as they were all just normal people in the beginning who were thrust into the life of heroism one way or another. This begs the question, now that Marvel has reobtained these characters will their Netflix identities be retconned? It's general consensus that John Bernthal as The Punisher, Charlie Cox as Daredevil, and Vincent D'Onofrio were flawless in their performances so it would seem counterintuitive to get rid of them. Bernthal in particular gave me chills may times with the raw emotion he brought to the role, it was scarily believable. The same could be said for other characters from these shows. I would wager if anyone is recast and retold it would be Iron Fist due to the relatively poor reception the show starring him received. Rumor has it that Charlie Cox may be appearing in the upcoming Spider-Man film as Matt Murdock, Daredevil's secret identity, after all he does reside in New York like Spidey and many other heroes. 

    Marvel has gotten braver as of late. TV shows are a great way to expand and beef up the lore and content of a story. Marvel has tinkered with the idea of shows that are intertwined with the MCU before. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was directly affected by MCU events and was set within it but it isn't counted as cannon (cannon is something that is included in the official timeline or story of something). It's a shame that it went in so many directions because it introduced many interesting characters like a new Ghost Rider and Quake. Now with the addition of Disney+ to their arsenal Marvel can release high budget cannon TV shows to expand their universe. Get ready because it appears they are introducing the new generation of heroes through television. Upcoming projects introducing the likes of Iron Heart, Ms. Marvel, America Chavez, Kate Bishop (new Hawkeye) and others look suspiciously like a Young Avengers lineup. In addition we'll see characters like Moon Knight make their MCU debuts. My current obsession is their most recent TV show WandaVision. It has introduced more magic wielders and has some possible connections (should they choose to use them) to the X-Men. Supposedly their is a large cameo in the final episode which is leaving us to come up with theories. Some say Magneto, others say Reed Richards, my money is on another magic-related character such as Nightmare or Mephisto. 

    Lastly I'll mention the upcoming films that excite me the most. Shang-chi is going to be the MCU's first martial arts centric film so I'm interested to see how that plays out. We will also be seeing Mahershala Ali as Blade, he was my first choice to take on the role after they announced they would be recasting. It won't surprise me if we see X-men and Fantastic Four projects in the near future and I am 100% okay with that. The X-Men have always been my favorite super hero team, the biggest issue will be the casting. The upcoming film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the new Spider-Man are sure to shake things up with the alternate reality multiverse shenanigans. There has been a push by fans for all three former big screen Spider-Man actors to appear in a movie since Tom Holland first put on the mask. This upcoming film may be the one to grant the wish of so many. Rumors continue to swirl about who all will appear in the new film but if Marvel really wants to please the fans they know what they have to do. Everyone has a different favorite as far as the Spidey actors go so why not cash in and bring them all back for one last ride in an epic Spider-Verse type mashup. I for one and keeping my fingers crossed so I can see Toby Maguire throw on the suit one more time.